The Nuffield Farming Scholarship program was established by William Morris, the grandson of a farmer. After working as a bicycle repairman in Oxford, England, Morris began making newer bicycle models, and eventually started a motor car business.

Realizing in the then-early stages of the car industry that he should seek best practices, Morris travelled to Detroit to learn how reliable, lower cost cars were being produced in America. His model, the Morris Cowley, was able to compete with Henry Ford thanks to mass production principles learned in the United States. Morris became a leading industrialist and philanthropist, and was honored with the title Lord Nuffield.

The Nuffield Foundation was established in 1943, and by 1947 its scope of objectives had widened to include agricultural advancement. The purpose of the Nuffield Farm Scholarship program is for scholars to “search out and bring back to farmers in the UK details of good and innovative agricultural husbandry, from different parts of the globe.”

Illtud’s studies led him to the discovery of cellular agriculture, at the 1st International Symposium on Cultured Meat at Maastricht University in 2015. Illtud’s final report documenting his world travels with the Nuffield program includes a chapter on cultured meat, and New Harvest community member David Leibowitz has provided a synopsis of this chapter below.